Corner of our Lives

After church today, we headed up to visit my mom (a few hours north). The snow on the ground seemed pretty consistent until we almost got to where she was. There was a lot of drifting, but also a noticeably heavier amount of snow. She lives right on a corner in her community and when they plow the snow, a goodly amount ends up in her yard. She made the comment that at some point she felt like the snow was closing in on her. Her yard lamp is close to being under and the small tree in her yard has snow up to the lower branches. It is quite a thing to see. My mind kept going back to her corner of the yard being a catchall for the snow plowing. Sometimes, in our homes, we have those drawers, closets, or rooms that just seem to catch everything that doesn’t seem to fit elsewhere. This gets really dangerous when that thinking starts to overflow into our lives. We try to keep ourselves focused on where we need to be, but there are things in our lives that we are not sure how to file them away. I think that this is especially true of sin, but can apply to many other things. Maybe there are things God forbids that we don’t feel as strongly about, like loving our neighbors. It doesn’t say to just get along with them or don’t cause any friction, but to love them. We don’t want to call it a sin, but we know we can’t really ignore what God calls us to do so we find that little corner in our lives to file that away. Maybe we also have our full surrender in that corner because we can’t bring ourselves to give up everything for the Lord. We hear the call to obedience, but we just can’t commit fully. In John 1 we hear, “In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” One of the most vital things we can do is to pray that Jesus would let His light shine into those corners of our lives where we have let things pile up -unforgiveness, anger, self-righteousness, pride, and so much more. When God’s light shines in those dark areas, our motives are brought out into the light where we have no choice but to surrender them to the Lord. No one wants their sin exposed, especially if others become aware of it. Only at that point do we truly cry out to God, “Help!” O Holy Spirit, expose my sinful heart to the light of your justice, mercy, and grace. Rebuild me to reflect Your majesty. Amen